“LET US GO FORTH” – Charles Spurgeon
LET US GO FORTH
“Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” Hebrews 13:13.
The Easy Religion of Modern Professors
Modern professors have discovered a very easy way of religion. There is a method by which a man may attain great reputation as a Christian, and yet avoid all the trials of the Believer’s estate. He may go through the world, finding his path as smoothly turfed as the flesh could desire. Blessed with the smiles of friendly formalists and the admiration of the ungodly, he may pass from his first entrance into the Church to his grave without experiencing so much as a single shower to dampen his happiness; the sun may smile sweetly upon him all the way, and the birds may sing—not a raven may dare to croak, not a single owl may hoot—his road to glory and immortality shall be all that ease could wish!
Let him adopt the modern theory of universal love; let him believe that a lie is a truth, and that whether it is a lie or a truth is of no consequence at all; let him be complacent towards every man, and with a smooth and oily tongue chime in with every other man’s principles, having none of his own worth mentioning; let him trim his sails whenever the wind changes; let him, in all things, do in Rome as Rome does; let him yield at all times to the current and float gently with the stream, and he shall come to the haven—though I fear not the desired one—he shall come to some sort of haven at last, without any storm or tempest by the way.
But a daring thought comes across one’s mind. Is this the kind of religion which we read of in the Bible? Is this the way in which Scriptural saints went to Heaven? It would be a very pleasant thing if we could please men and please God, too—if we could make the best of both worlds and have the sweets of this and of the next also—but a warning cry arises from the pages of Holy Scripture, for the Word of God talks very differently from this! It talks about a straight and narrow way, and about few that find it; it speaks of persecution, suffering, reproach, contending even unto blood, and striving against sin; it talks about wrestling and fighting, struggling and witnessing.
I hear the Savior say not, “I send you forth as sheep into the midst of green pastures,” but, “as sheep in the midst of wolves.” I hear Him prophesy that we would be hated of all men for His name’s sake! Truly, these things are enough to startle those good easy souls who go so delicately onward; surely they may at once inquire, “Can it be that this smooth-faced godliness—this very delightful way of getting to Heaven—is the right one?” Is it not all a delusion? Are we not buoyed up with a false hope, if that hope is never assailed by trouble and persecution? All is not gold that glitters—may not the glittering religion of the many be, after all, only a pretense and a sham?
The Cost of True Discipleship
O you lovers of carnal ease, woe unto you! Inasmuch as you take not up the Cross, you shall never win the crown! The disciples of Christ must expect to follow their Master not merely in obedience to His doctrines, but also in the reproach which gathers about His Cross. I do not find Christ carried on flowery beds of ease to His Throne; I do not find Him applauded with universal acclamations; on the contrary, wherever He goes, He is a protestor against things established by human wisdom, and in return, the things established vow His destruction, and are not satisfied until at last they gloat their cruel eyes with His martyrdom upon the Cross!
Jesus Christ has no life of pleasure and ease; He is despised and rejected of men—a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and let us rest assured that if we bear faithfully our testimony, we shall discover that the servant is not above his Master, nor the disciple above his Lord—if they have called the Master of the house “Beelzebub,” much more shall they call them of His household by titles as ignominious and shameful!
We must expect, if the Christian soldier is really a soldier, and not a mere pretender to the art of war, that he will have to fight until he joins the Host triumphant. If the Church is properly depicted by a ship, she must expect to have storms; and every man on board her must look to bear his share. From the first day, when Cain and Abel divided the first family into two camps, even until now, the flesh lusts against the Spirit; the evil contends with the good, and the good wrestles with the evil. Wherever the true and the good have pitched their tents, there the enemy have gathered to attack them. Righteousness courts no peace or truce with sin—our peaceful Savior came not to form an alliance so unhallowed.
The Call to Separation
Hear His own words—“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”
Turning to Scripture, then, I find nothing about this pretty by-path meadow and its quiet, respectable walk to Heaven. I find nothing about riding in the gilded chariots of ease, or walking in silver slippers; but I do find contention and strife, and rebuke and suffering, and cross-bearing, and if necessary, resistance unto blood striving against sin! Our text seems to convey that thought to us most powerfully. Let us take it up; and may the Holy Spirit lead us to its true meaning.
We have before us, first of all, the Believer’s path; secondly, his Leader; thirdly, his burden; and fourthly, his reason for following that path.
I. The Believer’s Path
The Believer’s path is, “Let us go forth outside the camp.” The Divine command is not, “Let us stop in the camp and try to reform it—things are not anywhere quite perfect, let us therefore stop and make matters right.” The Christian’s watch cry is, “Let us go forth.”
Luther caught this note. Many there were who said, “The Church of Rome has in it good and true men—let us try and reform her. Her cloisters are not without piety, her priests are not without sanctified lives—let us try and restore her purity.” But Luther heard the voice of God, “Come you out from among her, lest you be partakers of her plagues,” and therefore he led the van, taking for his watchword, “Let us go forth outside the camp.” To this day, the Christian’s place is not to tarry in the camp of worldly conformity, hoping, “Perhaps I may aid the movement for reform.” It is not the Believer’s duty to conform to the world, and to the world’s ways, and say, “Perhaps by so doing I may gain a foothold, and men’s hearts may be the more ready to receive the Truth of God.” No, from the first to the last day of the Church of God, the place of witness is not inside, but outside the camp; and the true position of the Christian is to go forth outside the camp bearing Christ’s reproach.
Examples of Separation
In this respect, Abraham becomes an example to us. The Lord’s first word to Abraham is that he should leave his father, his kinsfolk, and the idolatrous house in which he lived, and go to a land which God would show him. Away he must go; Faith must be his guide; Providence his provision, and the living God his only Keeper! The separate life of Abraham, in the midst of the sons of Canaan, is a type of the separated walk of the Church of God.
Again, when Israel had gone down to Egypt, they were not commanded to stay there and subdue their oppressors by force of arms, or petition the legislature that they might obtain gentler usage—no, but with a high hand, and an outstretched arm, the Lord brought forth His people out of Egypt! Egypt was no place for the seed of Israel; and while they wandered in the wilderness, and afterward when they settled in isolation in the midst of the promised land, God’s Word was fulfilled, “The people shall dwell alone: they shall not be numbered among the nations.”
II. The Christian’s Leader
But now, secondly, we have in the text, the Christian’s Leader. It does not say, “Let us go forth outside the camp” merely, but, “Therefore let us go forth to Him.” Here is the heart of the text—“to Him.” Beloved, we might leave society—we might forsake all its conventionalities, and become Nonconformists in the widest sense, and yet not carry out the text—for the text is, “Let us go forth to Him.”
O Beloved, it is this point that I would urge upon you! I am no politician! I care not one whit what Church has the State pay, or what has not; I care not for political dissent—but I do care for religiously following my Master’s Word and, by His Grace, I will! And when I read this text, “Therefore let us go forth to Him,” I set myself to learn what the Word means. It means, first, let us have fellowship with Him. He was despised; He had no credit for charity; He was mocked in the streets; He was hissed at; He was hounded from among society. If I take a smooth part, I can have no fellowship with Him—fellowship requires a like experience.
Come, then, my Soul, put on the Savior’s garb—walk through the mire with Him! Off with your silver slippers—go barefoot with Christ! Be you, yourself, like the bush which burns but is not consumed; be content that your shoulders should be raw with His rough Cross—He carried it—do not shirk the labor! Expect not to wear the crown where Christ carried the Cross, but, for fellowship’s sake, follow Him!
The Call to Follow Christ’s Example
Again, if I am to follow Him, I am to follow His example. What Christ did I am to do. I am to go forth to Him. It is never to be a rule to me that Mr. So-and-So did such-and-such a thing, or Mrs. So-and-So—what Christ did is to be my rule! Some men are for hanging on what Luther did, or what Calvin did—that is nothing to the Christian—he says, “I am to go forth to Jesus.” Follow Jesus Christ, and none but Jesus Christ, and then you will be separate indeed from the rest of men!
I am to go forth to Him—that is, I am to go forth to His Truth. Wherever I see His Truth, I am to espouse it—wherever I see error I am to denounce it without hesitation. I am to take His Word to be my only standard; and just where His Word leads me, there I am to go, no matter where! I may have been educated in one way, but I am to bend my education to this Book; I may have conceived prejudices, but they must give way before His Truth; I may know that such and such a belief is profitable to me, but my profit shall go for nothing in comparison with the Word of God.
And then I can go forth to Christ’s witness-bearing. The present age does not believe in witness-bearing, but the whole Bible is full of it. The duty of every Christian is to bear witness for the Truth of God. Christ says, “For this purpose was I born and came into the world.” He who knows the Truth, but lays the finger of silence on his lips, saying, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace,” is a sorry Christian! If you have been washed in Jesus’ blood, and saved by His righteousness, I do implore you, take your position with Christ as witness-bearers for the Truth as it is in Jesus!
My Master Needs Today a Band of Men and Women
My Master needs today a band of men and women who are prepared to be different, as long as to be different is to be right. He needs men and women of bold, unflinching, lion-like hearts who love Christ first and His Truth next—and Christ and His Truth beyond all the world! Men and women, too, whose holy lives and consistent conversation are not to be perverted by the bribes of this world, and whose testimony is neither to be distorted nor silenced by frowns or by smiles. Happy souls shall they be who dare to take their stand with Christ today! The struggles of the Covenanters of old need to be renewed at this moment; the strife of the Puritan Age needs to return once more to the Church; and what if the stakes of Smithfield come again? And what if the times of persecution return to us? The good old vessel which outrode the blood-red storm will outride it still, and with all her passengers and crew safe on board, be received by the King and honored with His gracious smile!
We are to take care, however, that it is to Christ we go; not to a party, not to a denomination—not to anything but Christ and His Truth! Out with denominationalism or anything else which savors not of Christ Jesus! Whether it is the Baptist Church, or the Episcopalian, or the Presbyterian Church which errs from Christ’s way, it is nothing to any of us which it may be—it is CHRIST we are to care for, and Christ’s Truth; and this we are to follow over all the hedges and ditches of men’s making—straight away to Christ, clinging to Christ’s mantle, fighting a way straight through where He Himself fought, and opened the path to His Crown!
The Christian’s Leader
Thus, then, have we spoken of the Christian’s Leader.
The Christian’s Burden
Now, in the third place, we have THE CHRISTIAN’S BURDEN. He is to bear the Lord’s reproach. The reproach of Christ, in these days, takes this shape. “Oh,” they say, “the man is too precise.” “He is right; but still, Truth is not always to be spoken. The thing is wrong, no doubt, which he denounces, but still, the time has not come yet—we must be lenient towards these things. The man is right in what he says, but we must not be too precise nowadays; we must give and take a little—there must be charity.” God’s Word, in this age, is a small affair. Some do not even believe it to be Inspired! And those who profess to revere it, set up other books in a sort of rivalry with it; why, there are great Church dignitaries nowadays who write against the Bible, and yet find bishops to defend them! “Do not, for a moment, think of condemning their books or them; they are our dear Brothers and must not be fettered in thought.” How many days ago is it since a bishop talked in this way in convocation?
Some believe in Popery; but here, again, the plea will be, “They are our dear Brethren!” Some believe in nothing at all—but they are still all safely housed in one church, like the beasts, clean and unclean, in Noah’s Ark. Those who come out with Christ, get this reproach—they are too precise—in fact, they are “bigots!” That is how the world brings it out at last—“bigots”—a set of “bigots!”
I have heard say that the word “bigot” took its rise from this—that a certain Protestant nobleman being commanded, in order to gain his lands, to kneel down, and in some way or other commit the act of idolatry towards the host, said, when he came at last to the point, “By God, I will not!” And they called him henceforth a “By-God.” If this is the meaning of the word “bigot,” we cheerfully adopt the title! And were it right to swear, we would declare, “By Him that lives! By Heaven! We cannot speak a lie, and we cannot bend our knee to the shrine of Baal, bigots or no bigots.” The Truth of God is first, and our reputation next.
Then they say, “Ah, these people are behind their time; the world has made such advances; we are in the 19th Century— they ought to know better! The discoveries of science put their narrow views out of court.” Very well, Christian, be content to be behind the times, for the times are getting nearer to judgment and the last plagues!
“Ah, but,” they say, “these people seem to us to be so self-righteous; they think themselves right, and nobody else.” Very well, Christian, if you are right, think yourself right! And if everybody else should call you self-righteous, that does not make you so. The Lord knows how we cling to the Cross, and as poor sinners, look up to Christ, and Jesus Christ alone! Our conscience is void of offense in this matter.
“Ah,” they say, “they are not worth noticing; they are all a pack of fools.” It is very remarkable that in the judgment of their own age, good men always have been fools. Fools have been they who have turned the world upside down. Luther and Calvin, Wesley and Whitefield were all fools; but somehow or other God managed, by these fools, to get to Himself a glorious victory! And then they turn round and say, “It is only the poor—only the lower orders; have they any of the nobility and gentry with them?” Well, this reproach we can pretty well bear, because it is the old standard of Christ that the poor have the Gospel preached to them; and it has always been a sweet reflection that many who have been poor in this world have been made rich in faith!
Expect Reproach in Following Christ
Brothers and Sisters, you must expect, if you follow Christ, to endure reproach of some sort or another! Let me just remind you what reproach your Master had to bear. The world’s Church said of Christ, “He is a deceiver! He deceives the people.” Incarnate Truth of God, and yet a deceiver! Then they said, “He stirs up the people! He promotes rebellion! He is no friend of good order; He incites anarchy! He is a mere demagogue!” That was the world’s cry against Christ and, as this was not enough, they went further, and said, “He is a blasphemer!” They put Him to death on the charge that He was a blasphemer! They whispered to one another, “Did you hear? He said such-and-such last Sunday in His sermon; what a shocking thing he did in such a place! He is a blasphemer!”
Then came the climax; they all said He had a devil, and was mad. Surely they could go no further than this, but they supplemented it by saying when He cast out devils, that He did it through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils! A sorry life your Master had, you see. All the filth in earth’s kennels was thrown at Him by sacrilegious hands. No epithet was thought coarse enough! No terms hard enough—He was the song of the drunkard, and they who sat in the gate spoke against Him. This was the reproach of Christ; and we are not to marvel if we bear as much.
“Well,” says one, “I will not be a Christian if I am to bear that.” Skulk back, then, you coward, to your own damnation! But oh, men and women who love God, and who seek after the eternal reward, I pray you do not shrink from this Cross! You must bear it! I know you may live without it if you will fawn, and cringe, and keep back part of the price; but do not do this—it is unworthy of your manhood—much more is it unworthy of your Christianity! For God and for Christ be so holy and so truthful that you compel the world to give its best acknowledgment of your goodness by railing at you—it can do no more, it will do no less! Be content to take this shame, for there is no Heaven for you if you will not—no crown without the Cross—no jewels without the mire. You must stand in the pillory if you would sit in Glory! You must be spit upon, and be treated with shame if you would receive eternal honor! And if you reject the one, you reject the other.
The Christian’s Reason for Bearing Reproach
IV. We close by noticing THE CHRISTIAN’S REASON FOR BEARING HIS REPROACH, AND GOING OUTSIDE THE CAMP. It is in the text, “Therefore let us go forth”—there is the reason. Why then? First, because Jesus did. Jesus Christ came into the world pure and holy, and His life and His testimony were a witness against sin. Jesus Christ would not conform. If He would but have done so, He might have been King of the Jews. But no, the most loving spirit that ever lived was also the most firm! Nobody shall say that Christ was either self-willed or harsh, or that He hated other men—nothing of the kind! Never was there such pure generosity, such overflowing affection for men as you find in Christ. But yield the truth, yield holiness? No, never! Not a grain of it! Be silent? No, He rebukes the Pharisees. And when the lawyer pulls His coat, and says, “Master, in so doing, you rebuke us,” then Jesus Christ begins, “Woe unto you lawyers!”
All classes have their portion from His mouth. The Herodians come to Him, does He for a moment yield to them? Or when the opposite party tempts, does He side with them? Does He side with either the Sadducee or with the Pharisee? No, Christ’s course was ever an independent one; He committed himself unto no man, for He knew what was in man. The whole of His life through you cannot mistake Him for a Pharisee, or a Sadducee, or any one of the other teachers. He stands out like a lone mount of light, separate and apart from the chain of dark mountains; and so must the Christian. Christ was separate; and so must you be! Christ was pure, holy, truthful; so must you be! I pray you either renounce your profession, or else seek Grace to carry it out.
Moreover, the connection of the text tells us that Christ set apart His people by going outside the camp. That He might sanctify His people, He suffered outside the camp. Christ’s separation was in order that His People might be separated. The Head is not of the world, and shall the members be of it? The Head is despised and rejected—shall the members be honored? “If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The world rejects Christ—shall the world receive us? No, if we are truly one with Him, we must expect to be rejected, too! Christ’s separation is the type and symbol of the separateness of all the Elect.
Again, Christ would have His people separate for their own sanctification. You cannot grow in Grace to any high degree while you are conformed to the world. The path of separation may be a path of sorrow, but it is the path of safety. And though it may cost you many pangs, and make your life like a long martyrdom, and every day a battle, yet it is a happy life after all. There is no such life as that which the soldier of Christ leads—for though men frown upon him— Christ so sweetly smiles upon him, that he cares for no man! Christ reveals Himself as a sweet refreshment to the warrior after the battle, and so blessed is the vision, that the warrior feels more calm and peace in the day of strife than in his hours of rest.
Believe me, the highway of holiness is the highway of communion! A blot on your conscience will certainly separate Christ from you as to communion. Be pure, be clear, be chaste as before the Lord, and you may walk as on the mountaintops—having Christ for your Companion—enjoying with Him a Heaven on earth! The Covenanters and martyrs tell us in their diaries that they were never as happy as when they were in the dungeon alone with Christ for company; no, their best days were often their days of burning—they called them their wedding days, and went to Heaven singing and chanting the triumphal songs of praise as they mounted in their chariots of fire!
Let us close with this last thought and reason. Thus we shall hope to win the crown if we are enabled, by Divine Grace, to faithfully follow Christ in all respects. Oh, the crown! The crown! The crown! Come, let me hold it up to you! Is not this a treasure? Eternal life! Likeness to Christ! Sitting at His right hand! Do you not hear them—the harps of angels—the songs of the redeemed? Do you not hear them, I say, as in one perpetual Psalm of joyfulness they salute the Lord their God with thanksgiving? It is but a flea bite here—and then an eternity of bliss! A moment’s shame, and then an eternal honor! A little while of witness-bearing, a little while of suffering, a little while to be rebuked, and then “forever with the Lord”! This reward is so great that it transcends the light affliction which is but for a moment.
I will not put so little shame in contrast with it all. Why, in this age we suffer nothing—a few hard words, a jeer, a sneer—now and then a friend who leaves us because we speak the Truth; but what is that? O Brothers and Sisters, we are denied the honor of those favored saints who died for Jesus! Our weak spirits love these softer times; but, after all, the real days of honor were the days of persecution, and the times when saints won brightest crowns were when they suffered most! I fear the Church of Christ is growing sleepy. Men of God have lost muscle and nerve. Our fathers died for half a Truth, and we will not bear rebuke for a whole one! Two women were tied to the stake at Wigton and drowned in the rising tide—do you know what for? Simply because they would not say, “God save the king.” You say, “What does that matter?” Well, it was comparatively a theological trifle; they held a certain theory concerning the bearing of the Headship of Christ upon the political position of the king, because they thought the thing was wrong—though I, for my part, would say, “God save the king” a thousand times—yet they would not say it once, and died in constancy to their belief. The two women were actually tied to stakes by the seaside. The tide came up, and when the elder woman of the two was drowned, they asked the younger whether she would say it now. But no, she would not. She believed it to be a Truth concerning Christ and His Kingdom; and though it only touched one of the smallest jewels of His crown, yet she would not do it, and therefore the gurgling waters came up to her chin, and at last rolled over one who had faithfully borne witness to a portion of Truth which seems very trifling to us nowadays, but which to her seemed to be worth dying for! Nowadays, I say, we would not die for the whole Bible, though in other ages saints would have died for the dot of an i, or the cross of a t. We turn tail, and are frightened because somebody has said a hard thing to us for defending the Truth which concerns Jesus, and has the salvation of man wrapped in it. I say we will not fight for the great, and they would fight for the little!
O may God restore to us, dear Friends, more Grace, more piety, more love for souls, more care for the Kingdom of Christ—a sterner prizing of the Truth of God, and a determination solemnly avowed before the Lord of Hosts, that come what may, we will contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints! We stand upon the Rock of Ages confident that God will defend the right, and that right in the end shall come off victorious! God give you Grace—especially you members of my charge—from this day, to more than you have ever done, take your place outside the camp, and cheerfully and joyfully to bear Christ’s reproach!
Some of you cannot do this; you cannot bear His reproach; you cannot go outside the camp for you have no vital faith—you have not believed in Jesus. O Sinner, you are not to carry Christ’s Cross first—but look to that Cross for salvation! And when He has saved you, as He will if you trust in Him, then take up your cross and carry it, and praise the name of God from this time forth, even forever!
Charles Spurgeon